Honda Racing Signs Agreement With Snap-on
The Honda Racing F1 Team has signed its first commercial association of 2006 – a “long-term” agreement with Snap-on Tools, who become official tool consultant to the team.
The Honda Racing F1 Team has signed its first commercial association of 2006 – a “long-term” agreement with Snap-on Tools, who become official tool consultant to the team.
(Akron/Tire Review) The new year has brought new job assignments for some key Falken Tire Corp executives. Hideo Honda, who had been Falken’s president and COO, was promoted to CEO of the company. Richard Smallwood, previously vice president of sales and marketing, took over Honda’s position as president and COO.
It was a good weekend for Dunlop on 7/8/9th October at Brands Hatch, with Dunlop-shod riders taking all the available two-wheel titles.
Gregorio Lavilla, on an Airwaves Ducati, clinched the Superbike championship with a first and second place in the two races; the first-ever Spaniard to win the title.
The Michelin Pilot Exalto PE2 and Pilot MXM4 tyres have been selected as OE fitments on the Honda Civic Si, Michelin North America has announced.
Both tyres will be size 215/45R17. The Pilot Exalto PE2 tyre carries a W speed rating, and the Pilot MXM4 has a V speed rating.
(Akron/Tire Review) Michelin has celebrated the production of its 100,000th Michelin PAX System assembly at Michelin’s PAX 1 facility. PAX tyres are featured on the 2005 and 2006 Honda Odyssey Touring Edition minivans. The manufacturer says additional OE fitments will be announced shortly.
Banner Batteries has expanded its range of Power Bull batteries with products designed to cover virtually all Asian car models. This includes the following marques: Chevrolet (Daewoo), Daihatsu, Honda, Hyundai, Isuzu, Kia, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Ssangyong, Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota.
Power Bull batteries, which incorporate Banner calcium/calcium technology, recently performed well in the Stiftung Warentest of 16 international brand batteries; the Power Bull was named winner for best service life with minimum water consumption and self discharge.
The Renault of Fernando Alonso took first place at Sunday’s San Marino Grand Prix, on a completely new design of Michelin Formula 1 tyre. Following the result, second place Michael Schumacher is reported to have pronounced that “Bridgestone are back.” “They have suffered a lot of (bad) publicity lately,” the Ferrari driver added. Now, following a successful race at Imola, the tyre supplier is confident that the team it supplies can push for the championship once again. “I think we can say that the Bridgestone was the better tyre today,” said technical manager Hisao Suganuma.
Although Michael Schumacher’s car was lapping two seconds faster than any other car at one point, in terms of points Michelin supplied drivers dominated. Following Fernando Alonso’s win, and Michael Schumacher’s second place BAR Honda’s Jenson Button, filled the remaining podium space. After that all other point scoring positions were filled by Michelin drivers. “It’s clear that (Bridgestone) have upped their game,” said Michelin’s Pierre Dupasquier.
Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, (BFNT) has signed a new sponsorship agreement with Pikes Peak International Raceway (PPIR). The Firestone brand will now serve as the official tyre of PPIR for the Indy Racing League’s Honda Indy 225 IndyCar Series race on 21 August.
“Becoming the Official Tyre at Pikes Peak International Raceway provides us a tremendous opportunity at Firestone,” said Al Speyer, executive director of motorsports, BFNT. “PPIR is in a great setting, with Pikes Peak and the Rocky Mountains as a majestic backdrop, and in the middle of a growing Colorado market where the Firestone brand is assured of receiving excellent exposure. We’re quite pleased with the agreement and look forward to building on the Firestone-PPIR relationship to make racing even more popular with area fans.”
Michelin has introduced another version of its Pilot Road sports-touring tyre for fitment to Honda’s ST1300 Pan-European.
The new 170/60 ZR 17 (72W) Pilot Road ‘A’ extends the coverage of the range, which already includes sports bikes, sports tourers and big trail bikes.
A reinforced casing has been added to the latest version to offer improved stability and handling when matched with the 120/70 ZR 18 (59W) Pilot Road front
Dunlop has awarded the first “Maxxed Out” award of the 2004 SEMA show to the owner of a customized 2001 Honda Civic. Ryan Shutt from Baltimore was selected for Dunlop’s best-of-show award for having “the best Dunlop tyre and tricked-out car combination at the show.”
Camel Honda driver Makoto Tamada and Kawasaki’s Shinya Nakano took first and third place for Bridgestone at the Japanese Grand Prix over the weekend. The tyre manufacturer provided tailor-made tyres for its drivers to suit the special stop-and-go characteristics of the Motegi track. “Makoto was unbeatable. Even towards the end of the race, he had tyre grip like on the first lap,” commented defeated world champion Valentino Rossi.
The Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello drove to victory at Monza for the Brazilian’s first win of the season.
Makoto Tamada surprised spectators with his impressive performance at the Portuguese Grand Prix this weekend. In his Bridgestone-fitted Camel Honda RC 211 V the Japanese driver, who won the Rio-Grand Prix in July, took second place in the race. World Champion Valentino Rossi took pole position and Brazilian Alex Barros came in third place.
Bridgestone believes the result “confirmed the qualities of the latest Bridgestone compound generation.” John Hopkins claimed sixth place on his Suzuki GSV-R he commented: ” After qualifying, I knew that our Bridgestone tyres had very consistent grip, so I saved it all for a final attack on Carlos Checa. I managed to get ahead of him onto the back straight, but then I ran onto the white line and went wide, and he got by again. Horsepower is our biggest issue at the moment, and you have to ride the corners really hard to make up for it. But even though I would have liked to finish fifth, this was a great race. My team gave me a good bike today, and the tyres were exceptional.”
Global Automotive Daily has published the Japanese auto sales for August, stating that a 2.1 per cent increase in vehicle sales has ended the market’s six month consecutive decline. Mini vehicle sales were also up by 2.6 per cent which continued nine months of growth. Analysts say that the vehicle recovery is mainly due to a low of comparison base, as August 2003 was down by 2.6 per cent, and growth of the big players like Toyota and Honda.
Fife sees the eighth round of the British Superbike Championship this weekend, which will be held at the Knockhill Circuit. After a disappointing seventh round, Dunlop Motorsport believes to be “well prepared for all eventualities.”
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